“Elevate the voice of patients!”
The World Patient Safety Day is a campaign for all stakeholders in the health care system to work together and share engagement to improve patient safety.
World Patient Safety Day 2023 will be observed on 17 September under the theme "Engaging patients for patient safety", in recognition of the crucial role patients, families and caregivers play in the safety of health care.
World Patient Safety Day 2023
Objectives of World Patient Safety Day 2023 are, on the one hand, to sensitize healthcare organizations and medical and nursing staff to how they can integrate and hear the voice of patients even more, and on the other hand, to empower patients themselves with their voice and make them aware of the importance of their role in healthcare.
Patient engagement and "speak up" are important concepts in healthcare to ensure that patients are actively involved in their treatment and that their needs and concerns are addressed. "Speak up" refers to the patient's ability to express their concerns or questions about health care. When patients raise their concerns, they can help identify and resolve potential problems early on. Patient engagement refers to the participation of patients in their own treatment. When patients are actively involved in their treatment, they can better understand and make more confident decisions about their healthcare. This can also help improve patient safety by encouraging patients to ask questions and participate in decision-making. Together, patient engagement and "Speak Up" can help improve the quality of healthcare and help ensure patients have a positive experience.
World Patient Safety Day is one of WHO’s global public health days. It was established in 2019 by the Seventy-second World Health Assembly through the adoption of resolution WHA72.6 – “Global action on patient safety”. Its objectives are to increase public awareness and engagement, enhance global understanding, and work towards global solidarity and action by Member States to enhance patient safety and reduce patient harm.
> Learn more about the WHO Campaign
The German Coalition for Patient Safety / Aktionbündnis Patientensicherheit e.V. (APS) – Exchange of experience and networking
The focus of quality-oriented health care is patient safety. Adverse events that are the unwanted result of treatment endanger patient safety. That is why the APS advocates strategies to avoid adverse events. Many undesirable events can be traced back to errors that arise as a result of complex processes involving the division of labor. The most important tool for improving patient safety is therefore learning from mistakes together.
The German Coalition for Patient Safety – Aktionbündnis Patientensicherheit e.V. (APS) – has been contributing its experience and network as a platform for the WORLD PATIENT SAFETY DAY since 2015. The Swiss Foundation for Patient Safety and the Austrian Platform for Patient Safety joined the idea at the time so it was a multi-country day of patient safety right from the start.
The APS would also like to promote networking internationally. The website patient-safety-day.org is intended to share knowledge and experience from a large number of projects and to promote suggestions for expanding and building patient safety internationally.
The APS publishes the results of its projects and makes them available free of charge to all institutions and interested parties in the German health care system. Recommendations for action are an important practical tool. Experts consult in interdisciplinary working groups and create instructions for the implementation of security strategies. Accompanying documents (e.g. information flyers, background brochures) supplement the recommendations for action.
We are happy to provide translations of these recommendations for action on this website.
> Translations in English and Spanish – Practical Guidance
> Homepage of the Aktionbündnis Patientensicherheit e.V. (APS) [german]
> Homepage "Welttag der Patientensicherheit" (World Patient Safety Day) [german]
WHO campaign
World Patient Safety Day 2023
World Patient Safety Day 2023 will be observed on 17 September under the theme "Engaging patients for patient safety", in recognition of the crucial role patients, families and caregivers play in the safety of health care.
Evidence shows that when patients are treated as partners in their care, significant gains are made in safety, patient satisfaction and health outcomes. By becoming active members of the health care team, patients can contribute to the safety of their care and that of the health care system as a whole.
Through the slogan “Elevate the voice of patients!”, WHO calls on all stakeholders to take necessary action to ensure that patients are involved in policy formulation, are represented in governance structures, are engaged in co-designing safety strategies, and are active partners in their own care. This can only be achieved by providing platforms and opportunities for diverse patients, families, and communities to raise their voice, concerns, expectations and preferences to advance safety, patient centeredness, trustworthiness, and equity.
Patient and family engagement was embedded in the Resolution WHA72.6 – “Global action on patient safety” and the Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021-2030 as main strategies for moving towards eliminating avoidable harm in health care. World Patient Safety Day is one of WHO’s global public health days. It was established in 2019 by the 72nd World Health Assembly through the adoption of resolution WHA72.6 – “Global action on patient safety”. Its objectives are to increase public awareness and engagement, enhance global understanding, and work towards global solidarity and action by Member States to enhance patient safety and reduce patient harm.
Objectives of World Patient Safety Day 2023
- Raise global awareness of the need for active engagement of patients and their families and caregivers in all settings and at all levels of health care to improve patient safety.
- Engage policy-makers, health care leaders, health and care workers, patients’ organizations, civil society and other stakeholders in efforts to engage patients and families in the policies and practices for safe health care.
- Empower patients and families to be actively involved in their own health care and in the improvement of safety of health care.
- Advocate urgent action on patient and family engagement, aligned with the Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021–2030, to be taken by all partners.
Working together to make health care safer
The global campaign for World Patient Safety Day 2023 will propose a wide range of activities for all stakeholders on and around 17 September, including national campaigns, policy forums, advocacy and technical events, capacity-building initiatives and, as in previous years, lighting up iconic monuments, landmarks and public places in the colour orange (the signature mark of the campaign).
The global campaign reaffirms the objectives of the WHO Global Patient Safety Challenge: Medication Without Harm launched by WHO in 2017. The campaign calls on stakeholders to prioritize and take early action in key areas associated with significant patient harm due to unsafe medication practices. These include high-risk situations, transitions of care, polypharmacy (concurrent use of multiple medications) and look-alike, sound-alike medications.
The campaign will provide a special focus on the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for medication safety, considering the serious disruption in the provision of health services.
World Patient Safety Day is one of WHO’s global public health days. It was established in 2019 by the Seventy-second World Health Assembly through the adoption of resolution WHA72.6 – “Global action on patient safety”. Its objectives are to increase public awareness and engagement, enhance global understanding, and work towards global solidarity and action by Member States to enhance patient safety and reduce patient harm.
Commemorating World Patient Safety Day 2023
On and around 17 September 2022, WHO will organize a wide range of activities and host a global virtual event. Celebrations will include lighting up of Geneva’s Jet d’Eau in orange colour. Member States and partners are invited to participate in the global campaign by pledging to implement the WHO Global Patient Safety Challenge: Medication Without Harm, organizing activities, holding events and lighting up iconic monuments in orange in support of medication safety.
WHO Information 2023
Geneva landmark lit up in orange to mark World Patient Safety Day
Engagement for World Patient Day 2022
Photo Credits: Prof. Kama Akinori, Gunma University, Japan, WHO Collaborating Centre; Dr. Ahmed G. Newera, Saudi Arabia; Dr Olabisi Ogunbase, Maternal and Child Centre, Ajah, Eti-Osa, Nigeria; Ghassan Shahrour, Arab Human Security Network
With friendly support of the German Federal Ministry of Health
A project of the German Coalition for Patient Safety.